May 3, 2017

Christy Clark goes after teachers and the BCTF—again

When Premier Christy Clark sat down for a talk with reporters from the Burnaby Now newspaper, she was caught off guard by 10 minutes of hard questions from reporter Cornelia Naylor on her education record. Clark says her unconstitutional legislation in 2002 was the right thing to do at the time, and she won't apologize for any of her actions in the past 15 years. In her answers, Clark defended her unconstitutional legislation, accused the BCTF of wanting more teachers just to grow our ranks-not help our students, and repeated long-dispelled falsehoods about the dispute's history. At no point did she thank teachers for working hard despite her attacks or apologize for shortchanging an entire generation.

This interview has been getting a lot of attention on social media with dozens of comments on the BCTF Facebook page.

For many teachers, this election is a referendum on Christy Clark

During last week's leaders' debate, Christy Clark was specifically asked if she would apologize to BC's students, their parents, and teachers for her actions. Watch the exchange as she refused to even answer the question. A BCTF Facebook post about the exchange has gone viral on social media, attracting over 500,000 hits and thousands of shares and reactions. After 15 years of purposeful education underfunding and legislative attacks against our rights by Christy Clark, it's time we elected a government that we can trust, values our work, will put kids first, and not try to strip away our Supreme Court win gains when bargaining opens in 2019.

Vote at advance polls this weekend

Election day is Tuesday, May 9, but you can vote today or on May 4, 5, and 6. Elections BC has an excellent online tool to help you find a place near you to vote on any of these dates. There are lots of different forms of acceptable identification to ensure voting is easy. This election is going to be close and teachers could make a real difference in the hotly contested ridings.